165

Focalor could certainly tell that her current life was not so bad, it was perhaps even better than her life while in Solomon's service! But it could not be said that it was perfect.

Her Magic, for example, or more importantly, just how weak she is in it right now. As a Demon King, well a former Demon King now, however impossible it may still seem to her, Focalor was accustomed to having a level of power and magical abilities. A level of abilities that were not only as good as Servants have, but in fact superior to many of them. For example, while Focalor might have been inferior in graceful magic manipulations, for example, Medea, Focalor was far ahead in overall strength, in the past that is.

That was only true of the Focalor in the past, who had such power because of her connection with Solomon.

With Ainz, though Focalor dreaded even imagining the level of power that she might gain if she were bound to Ainz, had not granted her a similar bond. Without it, Focalor's current abilities were far inferior to almost all Servants and were, at best, at the level of a modern-day magus… Still a powerful magus, perhaps even on a level of a dedicated Enforcer, for sure, but nothing more than that. If Focalor were to face an outstanding representative of even the much weakened magi of the modern magical era, let alone someone at the level of Barthomeloi, or worse the strongest among them, Lorelei?

Ainz would have had to demonstrate another miracle unavailable to mere mortals, resurrection, after he would have collected what was left of Focalor in a small box.

But while being so weak bothered Focalor, such a thing itself was only a small part of an even bigger problem, something far more important to Focalor. In fact, it was so serious that it was the thing mostly preoccupying her mind these days. Focalor's difficulty was the same one that also occupied the minds of so many other inhabitants of Chaldea.

Boredom.

An ordinary and yet all-consuming, all-powerful boredom. Indeed, what else but boredom could threaten those protected by an evil deity from another world? Only boredom could. And despite the paradoxical nature of such a difficulty, it was no less significant.

And yet, such a mundane thing was part of, no, rather, it was the root cause of Focalor's much larger issue.

There were other, smaller concerns bothering Focalor, from the unfamiliarity of her human body to the fact that she had finished drinking the delicious coffee she had managed to get from Archer this afternoon. But all that was just the barest surface of the real and most important problem that Focalor was facing at this moment.

And that issue being the fact that Olga-Marie had just lost her teacher, Medea.

Not that she cares all that much about a mere human, magus or not.

No, the concern was that Olga-Marie, a magus, who was both the lover and the boss of Ainz, an ancient deity from another world, had become Focalor's charge.

Bereft of her powers and bored out of her mind, she had told her master that she was free and was waiting for his orders, in an effort to build rapport. And so, she was entrusted with a significant and therefore terrifying mission.

To teach Olga-Marie magic.

Thank goodness she didn't have to explain any basic things, she doesn't think she can withstand having to teach such banality. As she was born into a proper Magus family, Olga-Marie had both the basics, skills, and knowledge necessary for a Magus probably before she could even walk. And as Focalor began teaching her, she had grasped everything said and shown to her on the fly, learning quickly. Very quickly, unnaturally quick even.

She had grasped each lesson Focalor had taught so quickly, in fact, that Focalor, after just one day of training, began suspecting that Olga-Marie was actually a disguised Servant. Perhaps using some sort of skill like Imperial Privilege, learning spells not through simple training, but in some mystical way.

Focalor had lived two hundred years under Solomon's command and in contact with dozens of other Demon Kings, Focalor was, if you put all the facts together, a powerful and educated mage with two hundred years of experience. A Demon King who had prolonged contact with many equally and even more powerful, educated and experienced mages who had turned into Demon Kings, and was under the direct control of Solomon, the King of Magecraft, himself.

In other words, from a human, even a magi point of view, her abilities and repository of knowledge could not be called anything other than 'incredible'.

And in all the time she had spent developing and exploring the world around her, she had never before seen anything like what she was seeing right now. And the name of 'it' was Olga-Marie herself.

"I think I've figured it out." Olga-Marie lowered her hand, raising the other to cast the spell she had just grasped, as she marveled at the result of her actions, at the torn apart mannequin in front of her. "Hmm, never thought that the magic of Mesopotamia would be in my hands…"

Focalor knew about the ancient magecrafts of Mesopotamia, though not much. In her lifetime, her time as a Demon King included, Focalor's specialty was more in the Scandinavian magic theory. Still, thanks to her vast life experiences, she had dabbled in enough areas to at least understand enough in Mesopotamian Magecrafts as well.

But still, it was just that, a flight of fancy.

Focalor's knowledge of such Magecraft theories, could not be called broad or complete, possessing knowledge of only a few magical formulas and principles. Why, then, was Focalor teaching Olga-Marie on a subject that she knew very little about, rather than trying to explain to Olga-Marie something that is in more of her area of expertise, which in this case were Scandinavian runic magic? Oh, well, that was where Focalor's main problem arose.

Focalor had already taught about what she knew in that subject, and Olga-Marie had already mastered it. There's nothing more Focalor could teach Olga about, she might need some experience in it, more to make her more comfortable in using it, but that's not really something that can be taught, needing time and practice instead.

And Focalor doesn't really possess the Fifth Magic to help in that regard.

Focalor has seen many of the most incredible things during her life as a human and Demon King. Astounding geniuses, tenacious researchers, creative scientists, and she's seen them do the most inconceivable of things.

How they playfully repeated the most complex spells that were great secrets even in the Age of the Gods. How they used powers beyond even her control, how they reached the pinnacle of their field where no one else before could even advance toward success, playfully dancing with Death at every turn.

And none of them could even come close to Olga-Marie and the unbelievable level she was at.

It couldn't even be called something as mundane as talent. It was very ironic for her to say such a thing, but the Demon King, Focalor, could only conclude that Olga's capabilities were the results of a deal with the devil.

Yes, there were geniuses that could understand a complex spell at a glance. Maybe even two, three, or even five. Perhaps even ten.

But no one, ever, under any circumstances, could master two hundred years of magical perfection in two days!

It wasn't even the level of a Servant or a Deity, it was the level at which Focalor could only fall to her knees and scream to the heavens 'ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?'

What Olga-Marie was doing was… nothing less than fearsome.

But it was not a fear of a powerful adversary, born of the thought that 'if he can do it so easily, what else can they do?!'

It was a fear born of an understanding that Focalor possesses, an understanding deeper than even Mozart's or Medea's understanding. Damn it, an understanding even deeper than Da Vinci's!

Focalor was not equal to Da Vinci in her skill or intelligence, but Focalor had something that Da Vinci would probably never possess.

Focalor had once been in the service of Solomon.

The greatest magus, the creator of magic and…

The closest thing Focalor could come to describing Olga-Marie.

A living deity of magic, a magus so powerful that he could destroy the world, no, that had already destroyed the world. Solomon was a being that Humanity might consider God. Not the divine spirit that mages respected, feared, and coveted. No, God in the most literal sense of the word, a being before whom there is no escape and no protection from his gaze or wrath.

And in Focalor's eyes, Olga-Marie was equal to him.

Not in power, of course not, but in essence.

Solomon was the creator of magecraft, the man who had developed and created the laws all magecraft followed in its place. And so, it was natural that any magecraft sprang from these origins, was subject to him. No matter the elements, systems, signs, the wrappings change, but the essence remains the same.

As long as magecraft was magecraft, it was subject to Solomon.

The affinity for the elements, the similarity of the systems, all those constraints that existed for magi did not exist for Solomon. Those things that magi studied, wallowing in their weakness, meant nothing to Solomon himself, the pinnacle of magecraft.

Paracelsus, one of the greatest magi ever born on Earth, became a legend precisely because he was born with an affinity for all the elements of magic. But even so, it did not mean that he could use or understand all magecraft. Even for him, there would be a type of magecraft that was easier and another more difficult. Yes, he was legendary, because for other magi for whom these limits were rigid and unchangeable, he could easily push through them with his strength, his intelligence, and his training. But even he sees a difference between one branch of magecraft with another.

Solomon didn't. As long as magecraft remained magecraft, it was all the same to him, and he could use it with ease and mastery.

And Olga-Marie could see the same things.

Usually, magus specializes in one magecraft system, usually one that their family had studied for generations, in which they would study all their lives. Whether it was Jewelcraft, Wischraft, Formalcrafts or even Curses, a magus, or even their whole family line, would focus their study on one branch of Magecraft. Yes, perhaps they could diversify their arsenal with a couple of other spells from other branches as needed, but to learn multiple magic systems at once?

I suppose a non-magus could say that learning a branch of magic was akin to something like higher education or university, but it was not. Rather, it was simultaneously all the lower schools, and a bachelor and doctorate study combined. And all of them focusing only on one subject, and by focusing, she meant that there is only one subject to be studied all year for all the education levels.

It is no surprise then that a Magi family spent generations simply furthering the craft of one branch of magecraft, or at even at an extreme, one spell of one branch.

Is it really a surprise? No. Even just one spell, the simplest one, the pre-school in this analogy, would require many readings of many books in order to comprehend the basics. The complexities of one spell could be studied for hundreds of years and yet remain a subject of study. With one single spell or ritual being so complex and tedious to study, one then understands the undertaking one needed to master an entire branch of magecraft.

It could easily take fifteen or twenty years to study even one magical system, not even to the level of a master, but only to the level at which one could call a magus 'qualified' in it. Learning a second magical system where they can reliably use it would then take another ten years, as they already had some grounding. Focalor, in her long life, had met some genius that can learn three branches of magecraft simultaneously, but even they took seven or eight years to be proficient in it.

It was a situation in which, even discounting the fact that for most this was simply impossible, it was safe to say that that person was not only a genius, but also a madman.

After all, people were limited in their abilities and talents. Some simply did not have an inherent affinity for this or that branch of magic, just as a person born with a weak constitution was not suited for heavy physical work.

The mere fact that Paracelsus was born with the ability to study all branches of magecraft already made him a legend, unsurpassed even by the oldest and most accomplished of Magi families.

And, that legend is currently being left in the dust by the girl before Focalor's eyes.

At the current moment, not yet reaching the end of her second decade of life, she had already mastered many branches of magecraft…

The standard Formalcrafts of the Clock Tower, Orphean magic, ancient Greek magic, Scandinavian magic. And, just now, Mesopotamian magic. Five entire magical systems, each radically different from the other.

It is quite likely that Paracelsus possessed a magnitude greater arsenal of magic than Olga, a greater arsenal of spells and magic systems, but Paracelsus was a Servant. Comparing the two was already in the realm of foolishness. And even so, before becoming a Servant he had been a researcher and scientist for decades, pursuing the most distant and improbable goals.

It took Paracelsus decades and becoming a Servant to gain control of the same abilities that Olga-Marie was able to manifest in… A month of study!

This was not even a joke. Anyone who would say that he knew a magus that could master four distinct Magecraft styles in a month would likely be ridiculed as an insolent, and yet extremely stupid, liar. Such a thing was so beyond the realm of possibility that the only person Focalor could compare Olga-Marie to was Solomon.

And Solomon was a living deity of magic!

"That's enough." Focalor finally gave up any semblance of control as she watched Olga-Marie continue to trample her entire worldview right before her eyes. "You're doing just fine, the training is simply over for today. There's nothing more I can teach you."

"Hmm?" Olga-Marie couldn't conceal her confusion at Focalor's words - "But I haven't fully mastered all the spells yet…"

If Olga-Marie could not only learn in two days, but also master all the spells that Focalor herself had not managed to fully master in two hundred years of life? Focalor's mind would probably just break, so she shook her head. "Yes, but that will simply come in time, something you need to master on your own…"

Hundreds of years of experience, trampled in a day as she watched a modern-day mage… Indeed, if Ainz could have chosen anyone as his boss, it was a creature that inflicted as much terror on Focalor as even Solomon could ever inflict.

Focalor sighed as she watched Olga-Marie, somewhat confused by her words and actions, stop the repetition of her spells, then turn around,- "Hmm, in that case… What next?"

"If only I knew… " Focalor couldn't help but sigh.

As a matter of fact, what else could Focalor teach the human girl, and she was unfortunately definitely a human, if only she was some kind of Phantasmal beast, it would make Focalor more calm. Actually, what could occupy the time of a girl who had swallowed two hundred years of experience of an unfamiliar magical system and reproduce them on the first try? Even if Focalor right now pulled out absolutely all the magical knowledge she'd managed to accumulate in her life, would it even count as teaching? And not just the magic she was familiar with, but even what rather fit into the 'heard about it once' category, given the pace of this… Monster, Focalor couldn't call Olga-Marie anything else, it would only occupy her a couple more hours, and would devastate Focalor as a teacher completely.

She wasn't sure how Ainz would react if Olga decided to tell Ainz that Focalor was a bad teacher!

Even now, though Focalor could beat Olga-Marie in experience, that was the one thing Focalor could beat her in! And that was, curse it all in Solomon's name, just not normal!

Right now, Olga-Marie had steadily outpaced even the so-called first-rate mages and was approaching heights that other people could only consider the realm of genius among geniuses, well, or, 'Servants'.

And weren't that quite the scary comparison to make. And even so, Olga's capabilities were not something that even Servants, if they were from a more modern age, can replicate.

It is a fact that Servants were no longer creatures that followed the rules of the world, an existence that was beyond Human capabilities, but there were still some generalities that can be known. It was just a fact, that gradually, after moving away from the Age of the Gods, magic would slowly become weaker. And, as a consequence, the further removed they are from the Age of the Gods, the weaker the Servants were in terms of magic or mysticism.

Of course, many other factors needed to be considered, be it fame, connection to an ancient or divine being, their training, and even artificial selection, which could be called eugenics without a shadow of a doubt. And yet, judging a Servant's strength simply by their age is a grave mistake. There were always exceptions to the rule. Sometimes there are simply those who were born strong because of the confluence of many very different factors.

For example, Merlin… No, that guy is not something to be made an example from… For example, Nikola Tesla. Being so removed from the Age of the Gods, there was no way for him to be so powerful, and yet, he is. Outstanding even among ancient heroes, there was no way for his power to be connected to his antiquity or his connection to the divine.

Yes, such exceptions do exist. But as a rule, Servants became weaker the closer they were to the modern world devoid of magic.

The world, with magic and Mystery slowly dissipating, was simply no longer capable of sustaining such powerful entities. Focalor herself could only exist in this world thanks to Solomon. While the Servants, summoned in the Holy Grail War, existed only thanks to the Holy Grail itself, itself a product of True Magic.

The fact that someone was able to create the Pseudo-Throne of Heroes in modern times could be called nothing but a miracle and a triumph of humanity and human genius.

But even so, in the modern world, magic was so degenerated that it was simply incapable of crystallizing legends in the form of Heroic Spirits, and therefore incapable of creating Servants. It simply could not support those who could become Servants.

Even under such conditions, of course, powerful mages and monsters, the exception, capable of rivaling Servants were still born, but who was the exception? Lorelei? One magus among millions of others?

And even she was not, after all, an exception to the rule. Even wielding all the magic in the world, she was simply inferior to Medea. Not in terms of strength or even experience, as Focalor gave Lorelei good chances of defeating Medea, but in terms of her magic itself.

So why, why, what stars aligned to make this one girl, Olga-Marie, the worst exception to this rule?!

It drove Focalor mad, and even, in a way, made her feel a certain kinship and sympathy for Da Vinci. If these thoughts devoured Focalor's mind from within as she tried to comprehend a human girl, and as Focalor did not consider herself smarter than 'the man of all sciences', how much worse was it for Da Vinci?!

"I don't know," Focalor finally said simply, "I can look at how you use spells and give some practical advice, but as a teacher I'm effectively out of things to teach. I just don't have anything I can teach you."

Olga-Marie, a monstrous creature that frightens Focalor as much as Solomon and Ainz, only paused at her words, reflecting, then sighed. "I'm honestly starting to get used to my incredible rate of growth…"

"But definitely not me…" -Focalor muttered to herself. "Frankly, with your current level, I can only suggest you turn to Da Vinci…"

Indeed, the only person who could still teach Olga-Marie something in the current circumstances was only Da Vinci, a genius who possesses all the knowledge of mankind. In fact, in Focalor's mind, this would be even more effective than anything else.

Indeed, the only way to appease the all-consuming, in terms of knowledge and skill that is, monster in front of her was to throw her Da Vinci, who wielded all the knowledge of the world.

However, to this rational suggestion, Olga only wrinkled her nose in distaste at the idea. "She's too busy with her own theories and projects right now… I wouldn't want to distract her."

Focalor could only nod in agreement to this, not that she has any standing to do otherwise. Reality, it seems, had a way of making adjustments to even the most elaborate plan and Focalor did not want to find herself dragged into the next experiments of Da Vinci… No matter how much sympathy she felt for her.

"In that case, hmm," Focalor sighed, "I don't know. I, really, don't have anything else to teach you."

At Focalor's declaration of surrender, Olga-Marie thought once more and then sighed. "Well, I understand… But, then, what should I do next?"

"I don't know,",- Focalor sighed as he watched the monster contemplate her next victim. "As I've said… Actually, if Da Vinci is not available, maybe you could turn to the other Servants then?"

Besides Da Vinci, Baal, and Cainabel, whom Focalor would not have been willing to go anywhere near, Olga-Marie's magical training could be handled by… probably one of the Gorgon sisters? The smaller one, well one of the two at least, as Focalor, could not tell the names or easily differentiate, was a Caster, right? Wait, no, that's wrong. Well, they're of Divine origins, so maybe they have some insight? One could try to contact Nursery Rhyme… if she was not busy being dragged all over the place as part of Cainabel's social circle.

With Mozart, Olga-Marie had long ago finished her training with him, and Medea and Cu Chulainn were unavailable at the moment…

"Hmm, really, in that case… " Olga-Marie was deep in thought. "Maybe I could get some sort of physical training?"

Focalor blinked, surprised by what she had just heard. "What?"

"Medea kept saying that a proper mage should not be defenseless even when their magic is useless." Olga-Marie mused, and then she grimaced slightly, clearly remembering the not very pleasant kind of training that she had experienced before, making Focalor blink.

No, of course, Medea's words were not without logic at all. A magus capable of fighting even without magic, was far more dangerous than an ordinary magus that could not, nobody ever expected a mage to start swinging. A punch to the face, or a sword through the gut works just as well as any curses or spell.

But there was a reason why almost all mages didn't bother trying to develop this side of their abilities, and mages who could fight physically were either unusual exceptions or recognized geniuses. And the reason was that people's affinity for magic was far more important to many than their physical abilities. That, and Reinforcement magic is very hard to get into a usable state, and stupidly dangerous to boot.

Even the most trained athlete could not stop a bullet or survive an unexpected explosion of fire under their feet. Such facts made it so that it was far more effective for most magi to develop their strengths, magic, than to compensate for their weaknesses, their physical attributes. Of course, every mage had to maintain a minimum level of care for his physical body, but even for Servants such a thing remains a constant. Whether it was Medea, Paracelsus, or even Solomon himself, Casters concentrated on their magical abilities, becoming terrifying monsters in this sense, but showing extremely mediocre performance in the physical plane.

In fact, if taken by surprise, and the assailant somehow capable of getting close, most Casters would lose to a competent Mage capable of close quarters combat, not to mention other Servants.

Therefore, mages only engaged in body training if they were part of three distinct groups. First, if they were originally mediocre mages, for whom magic had to become nothing more than a supplement to their physical abilities. Something which was not at all true for Olga-Marie, who demonstrated a terrifying capacity for magic, both in skill and Magic Circuits.

Second is when their talent was for magic that was far more suitable not in terms of full-fledged magical battles, but for, say, enhancement and support. Such a thing was rare, but among the Servants, Focalor could put Scáthach and Cu Chulainn in this box. For Olga-Marie, however, she was far from this category.

And lastly, in the third case, where a mage, strange as it may seem, had reached a ceiling in the development of their magic and tried to increase his fighting power in other ways. This was mostly the case with mages of modern times, for example, Lorelei, who had extremely powerful magic, but had clearly reached the ceiling of her own development, and therefore could think of no other way to become stronger.

Whether this was true of Olga-Marie was a question not even worth answering.

Yet, at the same time, it was impossible to say that Medea's suggestion was completely devoid of logic either. On the contrary, physical training, in this case, was not an indication of any lacking in Olga-Marie's capability to unlock her full potential as a magus, it was on the contrary, in fact.

Whether it was simply her talent or because of a contract with Ainz, Olga-Marie was demonstrating abilities that were unthinkable in the modern world. No, her talents were so phenomenal that it would have made her a genius even if she were to live in the Age of the Gods.

Even now, at her current level, with the most minimal level of training and study, Olga-Marie was equal to a Servant's strength, a Caster, both in her strength and in her arsenal of abilities.

Of course, we're not talking about great Servants. She seriously fell short to the likes of Medea, King Arthur, and was certainly many steps behind the greatest of heroes like Gilgamesh or Solomon, but… that was only true, right now.

If she could assimilate the two hundred years of Focalor's magical studies in two days, what would happen in a week? A month? A year? Ten?

It was… a foreboding thought for Focalor.

The Age of the Gods, the Age of Heroes, of great works of magic, was long past and the world was incapable of giving birth to new Servants, to new Heroic Spirits. It was simply a constant of this ran-down world.

And yet, as she looked at Olga-Marie's departing back, Focalor could only wonder.

If the world was not capable of sustaining her abilities…

Then where did they come from?

Olga-Marie has gained (10) levels!

Scientist ~ Magical Research (1); Mage ~ Scandinavia (9)

HP: 12 (+2)

Mana: 42 (+9)

Physical Attack: 5 (+1)

Physical Defense: 1

Dexterity: 12 (+2)

Magical Attack: 38 (+10)

Magical Defense: 6 (+2)

Resistance: 14 (+4)

Special Abilities: 0